CONTEXT

Administrative and biographical history: Professor David Gwyn Williams (1904-1990) was a poet, novelist and translator. He was born at Port Talbot, Glamorgan, and attended the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, and Jesus College, Oxford. He lectured at the Universities of Cairo, Alexandria, Benghazi, and Istanbul, 1935-1969, becoming Professor of English Language and Literature. He then lived in his grandfather's house in Trefenter, Cardiganshire, until 1983, when he moved to Aberystwyth. He was married with five children, and died in 1990. He wrote a variety of works, including translations of Welsh poetry into English, collected as To Look For a Word (Llandysul, 1976); novels including This Way to Lethe (London, 1962) and The Avocet (Swansea, 1970); poetry, Inns of Love (Swansea, 1970), Foundation Stock (Llandysul, 1974), Choose Your Stranger (Port Talbot, 1979) and Y Ddefod Goll (Port Talbot, 1980); an adaptation of Troelus a Chresyd (Llandysul, 1976); Person and Persona (Cardiff, 1978), a collection of Shakespearean studies; An Introduction to Welsh Literature (Cardiff, 1978); The Land Remembers (London, 1977), based on scripts for a BBC TV series; an autobiography, ABC of (D.) G. W. (Llandysul, 1981); and four travel books.

CONTENT

Scope and content: Literary papers of Professor Gwyn Williams including typescript texts of This Way to Lethe with notes and correspondence, [c. 1962]; notes for The Avocet, [c. 1970]; material relating to his poetry collections including manuscript and typescript drafts, [1970]-[1980]; typescript and manuscript texts for Troelus a Chresyd, 1954-[1976]; papers relating to Person and Persona, [c. 1981], An Introduction to Welsh Literature, [c. 1978], and ABC of (D.) G. W., [c. 1981]; material relating to translations of Welsh poetry, [1950]-[1976]; material relating to The Land Remembers book and series, [c. 1977]; radio scripts, 1954; texts, drafts, notes, correspondence, maps and photographs relating to his travel writing, [1963]-[1975]; and correspondence with publishers and the BBC, 1951-1978.

ACCESS AND USE

Language/script: English, Welsh

System of arrangement: No obvious order.

Conditions governing access: Readers consulting modern papers in the National Library of Wales are required to sign the 'Modern papers - data protection' form.

Conditions governing reproduction: Usual copyright regulations apply.

Finding aids: A hard copy of the catalogue is available in Minor Lists and Summaries, 1983, pp. 64-66, at the National Library of Wales. The catalogue is available online.Detailed catalogue

ARCHIVAL INFORMATION

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information: All records donated to the National Library of Wales have been retained.

ALLIED MATERIALS

DESCRIPTION NOTES

Note: Title supplied from contents of fonds.

Archivist's note: Compiled by Rhys Jones for the ANW project. The following sources were used to compile this description: National Library of Wales, Minor Lists and Summaries 1983; Stephens, Meic, Oxford Companion to the Literature of Wales (Oxford, 1986); Daily Telegraph, 2 January 1991.

Rules or conventions: This description follows ANW guidelines based on ISAD(G) second edition, AACR2 and LCSH.